The present invention relates to liquid crystal displays and more particularly to systems for backlighting liquid crystal display matrices with collimated light.
Proper backlighting is essential to assure good performance of projection type liquid crystal display (LCD) matrices. The light provided by an LCD backlighting system should be orthogonal to the plane of the LCD matrix in order to maximize the efficiency of the crystals in modulating the light to form images. Furthermore, in many applications such as aircraft instrumentation backlighting systems must be as compact as possible since the available space is very limited.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a backlighting system for use in conjunction with LCD matrices which generates collimated light and has a compact size capable of fitting along the backside of the LCD matrix.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a backlighting system for use in conjunction with LCD matrices which is as planar as possible having a very limited depth as compared to its width and height.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a backlighting system for use in conjunction with LCD matrices which supplies light having a uniform intensity distribution across the matrix.